


my hands know anger (but they've been cut to the bone)

by seroquel (smallredboy)



Category: House M.D.
Genre: Child Abandonment, Episode: s01e13 Cursed, Estrangement, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Hurt Robert Chase, Locked In, Past Rape/Non-con, Protectiveness, the catharsis of yelling at your father
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-09-17
Packaged: 2020-10-20 14:23:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20676860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smallredboy/pseuds/seroquel
Summary: HouseFate corners Chase and his father into a room for a conversation.





	my hands know anger (but they've been cut to the bone)

**Author's Note:**

> for hc-bingo with the square 'trapped together', trope-bingo with the square 'locked in', and 15woes with the prompt 'no way out'.
> 
> enjoy!

The door is locked from the outside.

Chase can’t help but stare at his father, making sure to keep a considerable amount of distance between them. For the first few minutes, they’re in this strange stand-off, staring at each other from different corners of the room.

“Why did you come visit?” he asks. He’s heard Rowan’s response, that he wanted to see him (what, after ten years of no contact, of him not caring, of silence? All he got was getting a fellowship under House, a feeble apology for Rowan’s chase on his body). He calls bullshit.

“I just wanted to see you,” Rowan replies through his teeth, echoing what he said hours before.

“After ten years?” he snaps. Rowan flinches, but there’s no regret in his eyes.

He tries to excuse himself, “I had to go.”

“You didn’t!” he exclaims. If he can’t get it all out now, he won’t be able to ever again. He has to scream at him like he’s thought so much about, all those confrontations he’s imagined coming to life. “You didn’t have to! You made me take care of my mum for five years before she died! My sister is down the same path and she hates me! How am I supposed to deal with that? I was fifteen! I was a child!”

“I knew you could carry—”

“Carry that burden?!” Chase exclaims, tears threatening to spill out. “I didn’t have to carry that burden! I  _ shouldn’t  _ have had to carry that burden! It wasn’t a character building experience, I wasn’t on a-a fucking project to see if I could be independent! You  _ abandoned  _ us!”

“Robert, I couldn’t deal with your mother being—”

“And you thought I could?” he yells. “I was a child! I’ve tried to pretend I don’t care for so long, that I’ve forgotten you even exist in the first place— and!” he sucks in a breath. “I was a child. I haven’t fucking forgotten what you did to me.”

“What are you talking about—?”

“Don’t play coy with me,” he sobs out. “You weren’t under any influence, you didn’t forget. You gave me that little parting gift—” that little parting gift of being on his hands and knees, sobbing uncontrollably, Rowan shushing him— “and what, you thought it was okay? You thought I’d forgive you for— for—?” The words die in his mouth.

Rowan grits his teeth. “Of course I didn’t expect you to forgive me for taking you, Robert. That’s only part of the fun—”

The door opens. House is there, looming, his lip trembling. 

Chase joins the pieces quick enough; House had organized this whole thing, and now he heard them admit what happened before Rowan left. What jokes will he say, now?

“Get the fuck out of this hospital,” House says, this hatred burning, melting the ice in his blue eyes. “Get out and don’t come anywhere near Dr. Chase ever again.”

“Dr. House—” Rowan tries, walking closer to him.

“Out,” he hisses.

Rowan makes a quick job of leaving Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, all while Chase’s hands shake, watching him leave as he doesn’t dare look at House.

“I’m sorry,” House says. “I didn’t think it was that bad. I just hoped you’d be able to yell at him; he deserves it. I didn’t think—”

Chase draws in a breath. “It’s okay. Can I go settle down?”

“Sure. Do you want a coffee?”

He looks up at him, a small, nervous smile twitching at the corners of his lips. Perhaps House is trustworthy— he looks like he has gone through something like this, that he understands where Chase is coming from. 

“Some coffee would be nice,” he manages to say.

House nods and limps to the coffee machine, turning to check on him from time to time, like he’s expecting Rowan to be there once again. But they’re alone.

Chase has never been so thankful to be alone with House before, but there’s a first time for everything.


End file.
